This 1993 recording must be hailed as a document of supreme historical importance as it is the first audio-visual live recording of a concert given by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Six years later, the orchestra voted by a large majority to appoint Rattle its new principal conductor and artistic director in succession to Claudio Abbado. Even at this early date, Rattle was already attracting attention not only with masterly conducting but also with extremely interesting programming.

In the present programme, for example, he combines the final work by Jean-Philippe Rameau, a composer who raised the music of the French Baroque to a level never to be surpassed, with the famous Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz who, only 26 at the time of the work’s composition, was soon to be acclaimed as one of the “musicians of the future”.

Recorded live at the Philharmonie, Berlin, 6-8 November 1993.

NTSC 4:3, PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1
Region code: 0, Audience: All
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 87 mins